closed, but the mouth was
not an unkindly one. He was ready enough to expatiate on the arrogant
vanity and depraved taste of the Viennese aristocracy, by whom he feels
himself neglected, or at least underrated."

* * * * *

"Beethoven sat to me for nearly an hour every morning. When he saw my
picture, he observed that the style of hair pleased him very much; other
painters had always dressed it up as if he were going to court, not at
all as he generally wore it."

* * * * *

"His house at Moedling was extremely simple; so, indeed, was his whole
manner of life. His dress consisted of a light-blue coat with yellow
buttons, white waistcoat and neckcloth, such as were then worn, but
everything about him was very negligee. His complexion was florid, the
skin rather pock-marked, his hair the color of blue steel, for the black
was already changing to grey. His eyes were a bluish-grey and
exceedingly vivacious. When his hair streamed in the breeze there was a
sort of Ossian-like daemonism about him. But, when talking in a friendly
way, he would assume a good-natured, gentle expression, particularly if
the conversation was agreeable to him."

As we have seen, it had been a favorite project of Beethoven for years
to write a mass. When he started to carry out his ideas, one course only
seems to have been possible to him. This was, to project it on the
principle of his Symphonies, in which the orchestra should take the
commanding part in interpreting the emotional and dramatic possibilities
of the text. His experience with his first mass had confirmed him in the
belief that he could give the best expression to his ideas by the use of
the orchestra, on account of its greater range, its mobility, the
variety of its tones. The idea of making it of more importance than the
voice, upset all preconceived theories on the subject. The orchestra was
emphatically the tool best adapted to Beethoven's powers; he developed
it into something wholly different from what it was when he found it. He
put it to exquisite uses. His effects are the happiest imaginable and
they are introduced with a prodigality and lavishness suggesting a
reserve as of oceans from which to draw. Much of his vocal music is
dominated by the orchestra.

It took a long while to make people understand that music instead of
being the handmaid of poetry, whose function is merely to reflect the
ideas of our spo